Old Cahawba they call it today. The
pre-history of Cahawba was inhabited by mound building Indians who built
a mound at the site against the Alabama River with a fortification fence
around the village. After the mound building culture disappeared and the
Indian population at Cahawba was long gone, settlers came and discovered
this land wedged between the Cahaba and Alabama Rivers. Originally From
1820 until 1826, Cahawba was Alabama's capital city. It's tendency to
flood gave it a reputation of being unhealthy. In 1826 the Legislature
moved the capital to Tuscaloosa. Yet, predictions of Cahawba's demise
were untrue. The river didn't cause great flooding problems. People knew
this and the town became a commercial and social center. Cotton came
down the Alabama River and in 1859, a railroad was built using soil
taken from the Indian mound thus destroying their history, making
Cahawba a major distribution point. During the Civil War, the
Confederate States of America took over Cahawba's railroad and used the
rails to extend another one near Selma thus ending the rail service the
citizens of Cahawba enjoyed for the past two years. There was a prison
(Castle Morgan) established for the captured Union soldiers. Only the
chimney is left of that prison. In 1865, the river flooded the town. In
1866, the county seat moved to Selma, and within about 10 years, most of
the people moved to Selma and took their houses with them. During
Reconstruction, the abandoned Cahaba Courthouse was a meeting place for
newly freed men, who started a community of former slave families. That
project soon withered. By the early 1900's, most of the buildings in
Cahaba (as it is spelled today) had been razed or had fallen in. the
town was unincorporated in 1989. Old Cahawba is recognized as a state
park today and is slowly being preserved and her remaining buildings
restored in order to keep her rich history alive for future generations.

Note about the maps
Note the Indian mound and fortification fence surrounding the mound and
ending on each side at the Alabama River. Look at the map of the city of
Cahawba and note that Arch Street runs exactly along the former spot the
Indian village fortification fence with a warehouse where the mound was.
It was proposed to originally build the Capitol State House on top of
the Indian Mound but wasn't in favor of tearing the mound down and using
it's soil to help make the railroad beds when the railroad came to
Cahawba. The cotton warehouse would see disuse later on and during the
Civil War be turned into a prison for Union soldiers.

(2009) Enlarge
Cahaba gift shop & visitor's center: A reproduction of the cottage that
General John Tyler Morgan (lawyer, US Senator and military hero of the
Civil War) lived in on the Southwest corner of Capitol and Ash streets